The Technical Advisory Board (TAB) provides technical expertise and advice to the Council, and assists in development, review and promotion of RDA Working & Interest Groups.
RDA holds annual elections for TAB membership. The following individuals are candidates for the upcoming 2019 TAB election where 5 new TAB members will be elected. Voting in this election will open on 23 October 2019, at Plenary 14 in Helsinki, Finland, and close on 6 November 2019 (two weeks later). All RDA members are eligible and encouraged to vote.
The candidate statements and details below have been clustered based on the geographical region and are otherwise listed in no particular order.
Note that the TAB elections are subject to balancing criteria in order to ensure diversity across the criteria. For full information on the TAB election process and the balancing criteria, please visit see the TAB Responsibilities and Processes document (PDF).
Region: Americas
Mr. Jeremy Geelen
Organization Name
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Professional Title
Senior Advisor
I am a senior advisor at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), where I lead CIHR’s research data policy files. This includes implementing CIHR’s Health Research and Health-Related Data Framework and Action Plan; and developing, implementing and supporting policies and initiatives related to research data, such as a recent funding opportunity that provided funding to support the adoption of the FAIR principles.
My work at CIHR builds upon previous work at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), where I also focused on research data and open science policy files. I have worked, and continue to work closely, with SSHRC and NSERC colleagues in developing and implementing “Tri-Agency” research data management (RDM) policies, for example the Tri-Agency Statement of Principles on Digital Data Management and the draft Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy.
I also regularly engage with funding agency colleagues and other stakeholders in Canada, across the Americas, and internationally in advancing RDM, data sharing, and data-intensive research. In Canada, this includes working closely with key RDM stakeholders such as the Portage Network and Research Data Canada (RDC), where I am a member of the RDC Policy Committee and Standards and Interoperability Committee. Internationally, I have helped develop and launch data-focused initiatives and funding opportunities (such as the fourth Digging into Data Challenge); and I currently serve as co-chair of the RDA Interest Group, Research Funders and Other Stakeholders on Open Research and Data Management Policies and Practices.
Through my work, I have developed an understanding of RDM practices and challenges in various research communities (particularly health research, social science and humanities communities); the challenges research funders face in developing and implementing RDM and open research policies; and the role of the broader network of organizations and communities in advancing RDM and open research.
I have also developed a keen appreciation for the key role of the Research Data Alliance in creating the resources and tools to help researchers, funders and other stakeholders progress towards a future where, as per the RDA Vision, “researchers and innovators openly share data across technologies, disciplines, and countries to address the grant challenges of society.”
My candidacy to join the RDA Technical Advisory Board is rooted in my belief that the RDA, through the tools it develops, has tremendous potential to build “the social and technical bridges that enable open sharing and re-use of data” – and that the funder perspective I bring to the TAB would advance this effort. In addition to bringing significant experience in stakeholder engagement and coordination, my funder perspective would be especially valuable in collaborating with RDA working groups to promote adoption and effectiveness of their outputs. The insight I provide into funder needs would help ensure not only that the RDA outputs intended for funders meet their needs, but also that funders recognize the RDA as an organization with solutions to some of their most pressing policy challenges.
| Country: Canada | Region: Americas | Discipline: Medical and health sciences |
Mrs. Mary Uhlmansiek
Organization Name
Washington University School of Medicine
Professional Title
Project Manager
The RDA is an organization that embodies my passion for addressing challenges in responsible data sharing and open science. My research background began in social science with the management of sensitive treatment outcome data from survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and evolved to include the development of data access and governance policies for data brokerage services in medical research. While these projects have specific challenges for data sharing based on patient privacy and data confidentiality concerns and regulations, they also share many of the confidentiality or usability challenges that other research domains face – such as how to apply sufficient data anonymization procedures to protect the location of valuable specimens obtained for geological research. The beauty of the RDA is that it provides members with the opportunity to apply our expertise garnered within specific fields to other research domains, thus expanding our knowledge outside of our normal sphere of operation and allowing for creative solutions to data science and governance challenges. If honored with a position on the TAB, I would greatly value the chance to apply my research data governance experience and project management skillset to support RDA processes related to IG/WG development, member engagement, plenary planning, and output adoption, how- or wherever needed.
| Country: United States | Region: Americas | Discipline: Medical and health sciences |
Dr. Rob Quick
Organization Name
Indiana University
Professional Title
Associate Director Science Gateways Research Center
I have been an active member of RDA since 2014, initially joining as the Organizational Assembly member from Indiana University where I have worked for 20 years in various local, national, and international Cyberinfrastructure roles. These include the more than 10 years as Operations Officer for the Open Science Grid and Software Assurance Marketplace. I currently hold the role of Associate Director of the Science Gateways Research Center which is part of the Pervasive Technology Institute. During this time at Indiana University, I have worked on several national and international cyberinfrastructure interoperability projects, initially revolving around CERN and the Large Hadron Collider but moving to a variety of research projects.
Within RDA, I am the co-chair of the Data Fabric IG, the CODATA/RDA Schools of Data Science IG, and the Education and Training for Handling of Research Data IG as well as continuing active participation in the RDA Organization Assembly. I am also the PI of an NSF funded project called the RPID (Robust Persistent Identification of Data) which brings together several RDA outputs (Data Type Registries, Data Fabric, PID Kernel Info, Research Data Collections, and others) into a single open operational testbed. This testbed will continue to operative and evolve with RDA input through at least 2022. The GO FAIR project is looking at the services provided by RPID as an option for future adoption for worldwide research data interoperability.
I have also acted as a co-director of each of the eight (ten by the end of the calendar year 2019) CODATA/RDA Schools for Research Data Science. These two-week intensive events focus on building a foundation of data science and data management skills in early career researchers from low and low-middle income countries. They have been held on three continents and have had participants from over 60 counties.
I will bring a background in successfully moving RDA outputs to real-world funded projects, a firm grounding in and commitment to educating future data scientists and data stewards, and a long term familiarity with the RDA Community to the Technical Advisory board.
| Country: United States | Region: Americas | Discipline: Natural sciences |
Region: Asia and Oceania
Prof. Devika Madalli
Organization Name
Indian Statistical Institute
Professional Title
Professor
My work is focused towards data management, policies and infrastructure to ensure equitable access to data from the perspective of developing nations; building Synergies between and among RDA Interest and working groups with shared and/or complementary interests; Gender Sensitization and inclusiveness in all workflows and at all levels within RDA and its outreach programs; advocacy, liaison and sustenance of RDA ; building capacities by forging effective collaborations among the members and member institutions of RDA and other renowned institutions and initiatives.
In my tenure as TAB member[2016-19] I worked towards building synergies between RDA WGs and IGs. Gender sensitization is something I started working towards through a task force but that has rather taken a back seat among other activities. This is something that needs to be taken forward on a priority basis and I intend to pursue it with focused intervention over the next year. I have worked on issues of sustenance and have been engaged in collective thinking processes with RDA colleagues to find effective methods of sustenance. Likewise in the arena of capacity building for effective data sharing and management. Going forward, I intend to continue my efforts towards these activities.
| Country: India | Region: Asia and Oceania | Discipline: Social sciences |
Prof. Sa-kwang Song
Organization Name
Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI)
Professional Title
Professor
Biographical Information
- Principal researcher at Research Data Sharing Center of Korean Institute of Science and Technology Information(KISTI, http://www.kisti.re.kr/eng/), since 2010.
- Project Manager for a project entitled “Building and Operating Korea National Research Data Platform(2019)” with a budget of 2.5 Million USD per year, funded by Korean Government.
- Leader of Research Data Platform Team constructing Korea National Research Data Platform, which is currently in alpha version (KRDP, http://rdp.kisti.re.kr ) and will be open to public at the end of 2019.
- In charge of interconnecting Korea Research Data Platform(KRDP) with OpenAIRE in EU(2018), ARDC in Australia (2019), and Research Center for Open Science and Data Platform(RCOS) of NII in Japan (2019).
- PhD in Computer Science at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST, http://www.kaist.ac.kr/html/en/index.html), 2011.
- Professor at Dept. of Data and High Performance Computing Science at University of Science and Technology(UST, http://www.ust.ac.kr/eng.do) since 2014.
- Researcher at Dept. of Bioinformatices team of Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute(ETRI, http://www.etri.re.kr/eng/), from 2005 to 2010.
- Standardization committee member of Artificial Intelligence PG(PG1005) of Intelligence information TC(TC010) at TTA Standardization.
- Planning Committee of AI National Strategic Project Group of Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP, https://www.iitp.kr/en/main.it)
Expected key contributions
- Technical contributions on RDA based on the experiments on developing Korea Research Data Platform(KRDP) and its’ engagement with OpenAIRE(EU), ARDC(Australia), and RCOS(Japan).
- Global technical collaboration support on RDA based on collaboration experiments among EU(OpenAIRE), Australia(ARDC), Japan(RCOS, NII), and Korea(KRDP)
| Country: South Korea | Region: Asia and Oceania | Discipline: Engineering and technology |
Region: Europe and Africa
Dr Anthony Oko-Isu
Organization Name
Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo, Ebonyi State, Nigeria
Professional Title
Lecturer
I am a researcher/academic with a Ph.D. Agribusiness and a research focus on food security and health economics. As a young promising researcher with experience in promoting agriculture for food security by outreach work, dissemination of new findings and actively engaging with policymakers and practitioners, through this position, I will work with the team to facilitate relevant communication and coordination across the various WGs and IGs and work with RDA Working Groups to promote adoption and effectiveness of their Outputs. More so if elected, work with the team in engaging with the RDA membership and feed their ideas and TAB perspectives into RDA processes and strategies as well as act with the liaison on endorsed Working and Interest Groups, evaluating proposed Working and Interest Groups.
If elected, I will come into the team with knowledge of understanding the needs and priorities of stakeholders and policymakers by increasing membership and contributions of Africa-based scholars. This will assist the Technical Advisory Board in providing strategic insight into the current and future direction of RDA, as each member’s own strengths are drawn upon regularly. Also, my expertise and advice which could take the form of reviewing new Working Groups or Interest Groups, responding to RDA membership input, working with Council, or any number of other ways will be superlative.
| Country: Nigeria | Region: Europe and Africa | Discipline: Agricultural Sciences |
Ms. Helen Glaves
Organization Name
British Geological Survey
Professional Title
Senior Data Scientist
As a Senior Data Scientist at the British Geological Survey (BGS), I am responsible for EU-funded research infrastructure projects addressing various aspects of data sharing on both the European and international scale e.g. ENVRIplus http://www.envri.eu, ENVRI-FAIR http://www.envri.eu/envri-fair, and the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) http://www.epos-ip.eu
For the last three years, I have also been the Earth Science and Space Informatics (ESSI) Division President for European Geosciences Union (EGU), having previously been awarded the EGU Ian McHarg Medal for contributions to advancing data sharing across different disciplines and organisational boundaries.
I am also actively involved in a number of other national and international initiatives directly related to the sharing, re-use and preservation of data and other associated research assets, which includes the International Geo Sample Number (IGSN) as a member of the organisational steering committee, the American Geophysical Union as a member of the ESSI Executive Committee, and the Enabling FAIR Data initiative.
My career began in the geosciences with a first degree in geology but as I became more focused on informatics this led to a further degree in information systems, which is also aligned with my current research interests in data management, long-term data preservation and geo-informatics.
The Technical Advisory Board (TAB) has been a contributing factor in the successful evolution of RDA from a grassroots organisation to a well-respected community organisation, which is partly due to the diversity and expertise of its members, and the blend of new members bringing fresh ideas balanced against those with a longer experience of being part of TAB. As an existing member of TAB, I am seeking re-election to continue supporting the various Interest and Working Groups that make up the RDA community, whilst also contributing my domain expertise combined with wider experience of developing international data infrastructures.
| Country: United Kingdom | Region: Europe and Africa | Discipline: Natural sciences |
Dr. Tobias Weigel
Organization Name
German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ)
Professional Title
IT Specialist/IT Architect
I have been working at the German Climate Computing Center since 2010 in the area of data management and e-infrastructures. My background is in geoinformatics and computer science. I am extensively involved in European and international efforts to build community and cross-community data infrastructures and data services, including EUDAT, EOSC and the Earth System Grid Federation. More recently, I have picked up topics in AI/ML. I am also editorial board member of the CODATA Data Science Journal.
I have been involved with RDA since its beginnings, chaired multiple RDA Working Groups and Interest Groups on Persistent Identifiers, Digital Objects, type registries and identifier metadata. I value RDA for its huge capacity to bring people together across disciplines, countries and different backgrounds to foster collaboration and generate practically relevant output for open use. At the heart of RDA are its groups and the outputs they produce and I see TAB essential in guiding the processes around them, helping groups to work effectively, make best use of the means RDA provides and help them with technological considerations. In this light, I wish to continue to contribute to TAB with my background and group work experience.
| Country: Germany | Region: Europe and Africa | Discipline: Engineering and technology |